The register rules: Anāhitā

Evidence dossier 019 — Anāhitā. Every exhibit catalogued, every ruling stated with its grounds.

At a Glance

• Canonical form: Anāhitā
• Original script: 𐬀𐬭𐬆𐬛𐬎𐬎𐬍 𐬯𐬏𐬭𐬁 𐬀𐬥𐬁𐬵𐬌𐬙𐬀
• Pantheon: Zoroastrian
• Convention: Avestan scholarly transliteration as the liturgies are edited
• False forms on record: 1
• Contested forms: none attested
• Series: The Canonical Register, No. 19 of 406

The Evidence

Exhibit 1 — the attestation. The attested form is 𐬀𐬭𐬆𐬛𐬎𐬎𐬍 𐬯𐬏𐬭𐬁 𐬀𐬥𐬁𐬵𐬌𐬙𐬀, from the tradition's own record. The canonical transliteration is Anāhitā.

Exhibit 2 — the preserved marks. a → ā (Long vowel); a → ā (Long vowel). Each is verifiable against the sources named in the attestation.

Exhibit 3 — the flattened form. The plain form anahita is not false — it is a fallback, and the register is exact about what that means. In systems that cannot carry diacritics (legacy databases, older tooling, parts of the address-bar pipeline) the flattened form is the accepted vehicle, and the rulebook names it explicitly as the final rung of the fallback hierarchy: full restoration first, circumflex where attested, macron-only by the academic standard, an attested variant, and only then plain ASCII.

What the fallback status forbids is promotion: anahita may carry the name where marks are impossible, but it may not represent the name where marks are possible. Every mark it drops — a → ā, a → ā — is a fact the sources recorded. A fallback is a vehicle, never the primary.

Exhibit 4 — struck from the record: Anahita. Origin: the publisher compromise — older books and hurried websites that print the "English equivalent" as if it were the name itself. Grounds: every substitution here (ā→a) is a romanization of convenience, not an attested spelling — it teaches the reader to guess, not to read.

Exhibit 5 — the physical record. Major temples dedicated to Anāhitā have been identified at Kangāvar (often identified with the temple of Artemis/Anāhitā mentioned by Isidore of Charax), Bīšāpūr, and Takht-e Soleymān. Sasanian and Kushano-Sasanian coinage depicts her with mural crown, lotus, and lions. Achaemenid inscriptions from Susa and Hamadan name her alongside Ahura Mazdā and Mithra, confirming her place in the official cult of the empire.

Exhibit 6 — the continuing record. Anāhitā's name lived on in Iranian languages as Anāhīd, a popular female name and a poetic word for the planet Venus. The pre-Islamic Iranian new year, Nawrōz, preserved water-rituals that honored her.

The Convention's Own History

Every tradition in this register has its own scholarly transliteration standard, built by its own specialists over decades or centuries, and the register follows each on its own terms: Avestan scholarly transliteration as the liturgies are edited. The principle that unifies them is the one the whole project stands on: a name is evidence, and evidence is not negotiable — not for keyboards, not for convenience, not for anyone.

The Protocol's Position

Can the canonical form live in the address bar? Almost always, yes. IDNA 2008 admits every mark this register defends — the DNS stores them as `xn--` punycode and modern browsers render them natively. The real frictions are practical, not legal: some registrars stock only part of the IDN space, so a theoretically valid name can be temporarily unbuyable; and stacked combinations (an acute riding a macron) remain awkward to type on mobile keyboards even where the protocol accepts them.

The project's answer is a ranked ladder, not a compromise: the full restoration first, then attested fallbacks in descending order of completeness. The ladder's lowest rung, plain ASCII, is a vehicle for legacy systems — sanctioned, but never presented as the scholarly form.

The Verdict

Case closed on Anāhitā: canonical, cited, and defended. The keyboard form anahita rides as the sanctioned fallback — and stays in that lane. The register's files remain open: if a source surfaces that changes any line of this entry, the entry changes. Until then, the temple at /anahita/ holds the canonical form.

The docket for this ruling: 1 false form ruled against, Anahita first on the docket; 2 preserved marks verified: a → ā, a → ā; no contested forms attested; the attestation rests on 7 cited sources — Avesta, Yasht 5 (Abān Yašt / hymn to Aredvi Sura Anāhitā), Achaemenid royal inscriptions, especially Artaxerxes II (A2Sa, A2Sd) invoking Anāhitā, Strabo, Geography 11.8.4; 15.3.13–16 (Iranian cults and the temple at Kangāvar).

The Register Continues

This is one of 406 entries in the Canonical Register — the authoritative reference for every flagship temple. The temple's founding dispatch tells the name's story; its Restoration File details the marks; its Resonance File reads the archetype into the industries. The blog index holds the whole archive, and the Rulebook states the convention this register enforces.

Continue the register — previous entry: Ꜣmun (read it) · next entry: Anánkē (read it).

The Canonical Register is written from the same canonical record as the lexicon itself. If a false form is missing from this page, it is because the evidence does not support calling it false — or because we have not seen it yet. Show us, with a citation, and the register will answer.